Avalon Acton

We’ve been here for 6 months now and really like how responsive they are to service calls. Past apartments we’ve had it would take weeks to get things fixed. Here it is pretty much the next business day. The office is great for receiving packages when we are away. It’s been a nice stay so far!

Georgine from the leasing office was very helpful. She seemed have lots of vacations (I guess they had different shifts since the office opens on Sat. as well) but she usually gave quick response when she was working. She helped us to make sure upstairs stop using washing machines and dyers after 10 pm which we could hear noises very clearly. She also helped remind everyone to not banging walls during quiet hours as apparently there were some tension between neighbors since the setup here was that those noises can go through walls and floors from one end to another. There were so many directions that sometimes it was very difficult to figure out where they came from without help of modern sound equipments. Since we had a 3-​year old who have more movement at home, our downstairs complainted us for noises and banging back at night for revenge. Georgine certainly eased some of the tensions by communication among neighbors.
The leasing office organized activities or provide food and drinks during major holidays. The swimming pool was popular during the summer. My wife

My husband and I lived at Avalon Acton for 5 months while building a home. Our experience was excellent! The facility was well maintained, and the leasing office provided outstanding customer service from move in to move out. Everyone went above and beyond to help in any possible way. Customer Service hours were extensive, for help from the corporate Avalon office. Our one maintenance request was completed in 24 hours. We appreciated having the Fitness center, pool, outdoor grills and club house. Highly recommend!

Great apartment complex for anyone looking for excellent temporary housing in the Acton-​Littleton-​Wesford area.
Excellently maintained complex, and the service is outstanding. The fitness center and pool are worthy of a high-​end resort. Diane Decker, Connie and the others in the apartment leasing office make you feel welcome and are always most responsive to your needs.
If you need more space, suggest you seek out one of the top floor 2BR units with a loft.

We rented a first-​floor, two-​bedroom apartment here for three years. We found the amenities to be pretty fantastic – the gym was seldom crowded and was well maintained. The pool was pretty good by apartment complex standards (but not heated, as was advertised). The common areas were always clean and generally well maintained and having a clubhouse with sofas, pool, TV and and high-​top tables was a nice plus.
You’ll see a model home on your tour (containing furnishings that are almost certainly smaller than what you’ll be moving in with). Note that the model home may have one or more painted walls… you can order accent walls in the ballpark of a couple hundred dollars a pop, which is a nice way to spruce up the place without violating the lease. Closet space is great if two adults will be moving into a two-​bedroom. But if there are kids in the picture, this place will feel like a shoebox before long.
But all in all, the community was just all right. It’s hardly a friendly, welcoming community. The units turn over too quickly for this to feel like a neighborhood, which means the best you can hope for is that you don’t live by a weird person. (Yes, there were a few, like the guy who sits out on his patio in his plastic lawn chair by himself all day, even in winter. He’s probably still there if you want to check to make sure he’s not dead yet). Kids are everywhere, which would be fine (we have two of our own), but enough parents let their school-​aged kids roam the complex, that it got a bit annoying. Being on the first floor, kids playing within a few feet of our living room window (or if not there, then in the parking lot right next to my car) got a little old. The playground is a joke… wasn’t even fun for our four-​year-​old. We took our kids to other playgrounds and parks in the area. I wish other parents would’ve had the same good sense.
The apartment office is staffed by people who are good at what they do, which is to lease apartments for as much money as possible, and try to keep the place looking good for prospective tenants. Being reasonable about rent increases is not in the job description. We left in part because of an 11% increase that they wouldn’t budge on. (But they did allow us to extend for a couple months to get something else lined up, so I guess that’s not too bad). Other than that, they do know their residents by name, and having the office open to sign for packages was a big plus. They’ll even offer to deliver them to your apartment from time to time (e.g., on the Saturday they close the office before a holiday).
So yes, plenty of good things about Avalon to warrant three stars. But if we were judging on build quality, the place would struggle to earn even a single star. The paint they use on the wall is so cheap that it comes off if you stare at it too hard. We ended up with marks all over the wall just from every-​day use. And don’t even think about scrubbing the walls… you’ll scrub the paint right off (no joke). When we left, their policy was that fresh paint is supposed to last three years. So unless you stay as long as we did, count on paying for a complete paint job when you move out. Carpet and pad is horribly cheap and started coming up from the walls – they don’t even cut it straight or properly secure it to the tack board when they replace it, which must be quite frequently. Walls are thin and noise would have been a much bigger problem if we hadn’t been on a first floor end unit. Also, utilities were atrociously expensive. We pay less for electricity, heat and hot water renting a house than we did in the apartment, probably owing to the terrible windows and poor insulation in the apartment buildings.
Comments on other sites have mentioned outrageous charges for damages upon move-​out. Yes, if you leave the place imperfect, you’re going to pay, which is a bit unreasonable given the poor build quality. Thankfully we were there long enough that the carpet and paint were due for replacement anyway. What they did charge for damages was generally reasonable. We had read complaints about clean-​out charges, so we opted to pre-​pay a cleaning fee (which appeared to be without markup) so that we didn’t have to worry about cleaning up after we left.
Bottom line: this is an apartment complex. It’s a far cry from the Shrangi-​La that they advertise it to be, but you didn’t really expect it to be, did you? It’s got a washer and dryer in the unit. You won’t have to shovel snow. You’re not going to meet life-​long friends here, but it’s not a bad place to spend a short stretch of life. The negatives of apartment living eventually outweighed the positives for us, but there are still some good reasons to live here if you can afford the ridculous rent (which exceeds the cost of renting some homes in the area).
Hope that was a helpful, balanced review in case you are considering moving here.

We are so unbelievably dissatisfied with Avalon Acton. We should have seen it coming when on day 1, the leasing office LOST our deposit check of $ 500. They even had the nerve to ask me if I forgot to include it with the rest of the application materials. Clearly we should have taken that as a HUGE clue. Here are just a couple of the CONS about Avalon Acton and I’m positive I’m leaving out some, as there are just so many:
The leasing office uses the old bait and switch move, they showed us an apartment that would «resemble» the one we would live in but we never got to see the ACTUAL apartment we were going to be moving in to until our move in day which was clearly after we had signed the contract
Our apartment was supposed to be in perfect condition when we moved in, meaning that it was thoroughly cleaned but it was DISGUSTING. There were little black hairs everywhere, stuck to the walls, and tangled in the carpet. The cabinets and closets all smelled like curry and had this thick layer of reddish-​orange powder caked to the shelves and doors. I found a SPOON in the washer. The carpets were disgusting and stained and there were spots that we re really crusty in the bedroom, perhaps some sort of bodily fluid” There was a blatant, purple stain in the center of the carpet in the living room. The walls were marked up and badly scuffed. It took me an entire week and bottles and bottles of cleaning supplies to get the apartment into an actual livable condition.
When I called Maintenance, they claimed they shampooed the carpets 3 times before we moved in. Clearly this was a lie. I had to beg them to do it again and so they promised they would after we had everything moved in. When I reminded them of their promise, they refused to do it. I had to call the leasing office and they got them to come at least look at the stains. One of the maintenance guys was actually nice and said he had the carpet shampooer in his truck and that he would do it. When he brought it up, it turned out that what they call a carpet shampooer is just a steamer. I.e. they steamed the carpet before but have NEVER shampooed it.
The head of the maintenance staff was extremely rude to me. (This was when they came back to check the stains.) 2 large males came bounding into my apt one morning while I was still asleep even though boyfriend specifically said that if no one is home, do not go in. Luckily I had dead bolted the door and woke up to them trying to open the door against the dead bolt. Then they proceed to come into the apt with their dirty, maintenance man SHOES on, even though they were there to CLEAN THE CARPETS.
The quality of the actual apartment is UNBELIEVABLY POOR. They probably built all 14 of these buildings in a week. The carpets are so cheap. The walls are white washed «mental institution» style and not to mention they are BEYOND thing. I listen to the person in the apt next to me listen to their bad 90s rap music all day long. You can hear AND feel the person below turn on their bathroom light because they wire the fan in with the light.
You are basically paying $ 300 – 400 more dollars a month for the «Avalon» name when there are many equal and even better quality apts for much less in the area and with better service FOR SURE.
Here’s a BIG ONE people: You pay $ 200 – 250 in addition to your rent per month in utilities, unless maybe you like cold showers, doing your dishes by hand and wearing dirty clothes. I tried asking the leasing office people about how much people paid in utilities before we first moved in and they said they couldn’t answer that because it varied. Yeah, they couldn’t answer that because they knew the number is outrageous. We froze all winter long, barely turning on the heat until my toes turned purple and our gas bill was still $ 150 each month.
The traffic is horrendous. THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT. It takes us 45 minutes to get anywhere.
There are 4 or 5 speed bumps on the only road leading to the apartments and then 4 more once you are in the actual property. Your mind and your undercarriage take a brutal beating on your way in and out each day. And when you try to go slow over them, the other residents tail you by inches because you’re going too slow.
The people in the leasing office simply aren’t accountable to residents, whatever issues arise, the staff does not act like they should, seeing that this is a luxury apt complex
They are also NEVER in the office. They work short hours and take random days off and aren’t open on Sundays. They take forever to return calls and are rude on the phone. However, they will bug you every day and leave demanding messages and get annoyed when you don’t return their calls on issue like renters insurance.